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Not as bad as we think

There were 5 plays in the first half alone that if just maybe one of them went our way? All 5 went against us. But Who knows, it's certainly possible Notre Dame could run the table and play a high caliber team in a bowl game.

Comments

  1. I agree that Nyles Morgan has never lived up to the hype. From his early years, he just has never seemed to have the IT factor, football intelligence or whatever. For all his athletic ability, he has Never been a major playmaker.

    Games get away from the best of coaching staffs, and this one got away from us. There was Ara's famous second half lost to USC. Hotlz's famous meltdown to Tennessee. And this year, Meyer gets blown out by 30+ against Iowa as a 17 pt favorite. It happens and this one had all the ingredients ...

    It was so laughable that Coffey immediately blamed the play-calling on Kelly. Just so typical NDNation. Kelly gets the blame for last year's coaching staff and none of the credit for this year's coaching staff. Kelly gets no credit for play-calling during wins and all the blame for play-calling during a loss, and he calls that Occam's Razor???!!! Really?? The most simple explanation is that all of Kelly's successes are someone else and all of Kelly's failures are his own doing?? We know Coffey marched in the band and never played football - that explains his lack of football acumen. Now I wonder what he majored in ... because it could not have had anything to do with Logic.

    I agree with the idea that you want to attack the speed on that defense head on, but these are the plays we've called all season. As I said to BTS in the last thread: "We still have plays where QB makes delayed decision to hand off and RB has no momentum and gets stuffed - we are not Michigan or Stanford yet in running approach." We have lived by that sword this Season and against Miami we died by it.

    Look ... it's simple, their QB had his best game of Season and ours had his worst. Add to that the crowd, home field and TO avalanche - it's a formula for blow-out. But on a neutral field with a healthy Wimbush (if that had anything to do with it) ... we could blow them out.

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    1. Mike Coffey is a laughable sideshow, Ed and Mike should seriously consider sitting him down for a show, since coffey likes to suspend and ban people from his website for foolish comments coffey should be given a dose of his own medicine. Mike coffey is to Notre Dame football what Jim Jones is to religious leaders, he has managed to take intelligent level-headed people and make them follow his twisted way of thinking, 2 days ago I saw Sherman Oaks ND post that Kelly should be fired that's all Coffey's doing right there.

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    2. Oh, I think it's good to add variety to a show, rather than having the kind of monolithic message you often experience at NDNation - not to suggest Ed and Mike always agree, but they are in sharp contrast to NDNation. If anything, I find it a little disappointing that Coffey tones it down on the show - I would prefer it if he were to sing the same tune he plays over at his Site, so that he'd have to defend it. They really don't have to defend their views over at NDNation - if they are challenged effectively, they just ban the heretic ...

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  2. A couple of days before Notre Dame played Miami I had a feeling ND might be doomed when Mike coffey was bragging that he bought airline tickets to New Orleans and Los Angeles, sure enough "the curse of coffey" took down the Irish. I was at the game 5 rows behind the Notre Dame bench. I can tell you the only player that had any type of fire on the sidelines was Dexter Williams and that was only after he saw playing time in the second half when the outcome of the game had already been determined. As far as the fan noise the music was much louder than the crowd itself, it made me wonder if they pumped In Crowd noise with the music. Aside from that it was Total Domination by Miami over Notre Dame just the same way Notre Dame took it to USC. I have great confidence that the Irish will bounce back and win the next 2 games and play in a nice bowl game. As for Miami I see them winning this weekend against Virginia but then losing their last game on the road in Pittsburgh. So their playoff run will come to an end.

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  3. I want to make sure I understand your argument. You say:
    1. Quick-hitting running plays would have worked better against a quick, smaller, aggressive defense (agreed).
    2. Instead, we called the same slow-developing stretch plays we’be called all season (because that’s what we’ve done all year) and they got stuffed & no adjustment was made until the game was out of hand
    3. This is not Kelly’s fault.
    Do I have that right?

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    1. I think you're over simplifying the situation. What if Wimbush hits Brown for a TD and we're up 7-0? Does Miami adjust and start backing off the pressure from their safeties? Do they then press on offense in fear of getting blown out? Did Wimbush stay away from running the football due to his hand? Josh Adams had huge games against everyone on the schedule (except Georgia) doing exactly what he tried to do against Miami, let the play develop and pick the hole and hit it. Furthermore, do we know if Kelly called a single play? Does he override the OC when the team is down? If so, by how much? When does he take over the play calling? A couple of plays got away from us, Miami converted and played flawless. It was their best game by far, not even close. It's life. Shit happens. If we beat Navy, Stanford, and win a bowl game should we fire Kelly for not winning in Miami? How did Holtz do in Miami during his tenure? I think everyone is frustrated with the loss, but so is the program, players and coaches alike. Let's let the season play out.

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    2. Mike B, I agree with your five "what ifs" and that it would have changed the tenor of the game.
      On that other podcast OFD, cousin JJ was exactly right when he said "a) Miami has the superior coach b) Miami has better athletes. And, I'll had C) Miami was going to be totally fired up for a Saturday night home game. Miami's Defense is one of the three fastest defenses in college football. Miami rose to the occassion and ND did not.

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    3. a) I don't believe Mark Richt is a better coach. He's notorious for losing big games late in the season. Let's see if they win their next 2.
      b) Overall, I disagree. On the defensive line and at LB, totally agree. But I'll take every single player on offense over theirs and even 2 deep. Their QB played the game of his life on Saturday.
      c) Couldn't agree with you more.

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  4. Coffee has always blamed kelly, why is he on tg e show? He needs to evaluate the band not our coaches especially Kelly

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  5. Notre Dame looked big and slow. Sort of like when you played Bama but then you were little and slow. Good try but once again "all sizzle, no steak."RTR!

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  6. Good luck against Mercer. I'm sure a lot of NCAA fans will be tuned into that game. Too bad Alabama refuses to play Navy. The finest men who defend our country should have an opportunity to play the best college football has to offer. But we all know the reason why this'll never happen.

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    1. Games against FCS teams should not count. Should be consider no different than playing a 12 game schedule.

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    2. 100% agree. Who's the equivalent of a Mercer on our schedule?

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    3. Don't deflect.All hat, no cattle. RTR!

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    4. Too funny. Can't wait for ND and Bama to play again. We'll definitely have you on the show.

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    5. Such NCAA "Mercer" events involving Top 10 teams only serves to heavily degrade and undermine the integrity of College Football Playoff runs. Penn State, who play so many cupcakes should change their moniker from the extinct animal Nittany Lions to the "Cake Bosses", once actually played games vs. an Ambulance/Paramedics Corp. This coming from a PSU grad that enjoyed rooting for (and taking the heat) ND at PSU's atrocious stadium, like the day Tim Brown played on a wicked cold Nov. day, ~5 deg. F. Compared to a typical ND schedule, the Bama's & Cake Bosses of the NCAA world gain a Bonus Advantage via their cake walk schedules, in that it greatly lessons their probability of suffering significant and key injuries throughout the season. As such, this becomes a huge advantage at the end season's end when their marquee players are still 100%, while teams who've had heavy battles ALL SEASON, are of course pretty banged up and battle worn. Totally unfair.

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  7. its time for both of you Mike and Ed to call Coffey out on his biased negative comments on this staff. No reason for him to be included with any discussion on football.

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    1. I agree but they won't do that because they need to keep Coffey happy so he will post the podcast link on NDNATION

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    2. Alternatively, they think my viewpoint has merit. Considering we post links to plenty of podcasts I'm not participating in, what's more likely?

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    3. Photo Phil nailed it.

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  8. James, from the great white north in Canada. Keep them coming, look forward to listening each and every time--make sure there are some basketball ones too. And of course, always willing to contribute the Canadian fans perspective if you need someone else on the shows.

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    1. I'd like some hoops ones as well, lots to talk about there. If we can get Brammer to travel back to (what he considers) the great white north, we can do a live one

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    2. I'm up for that. I do expect a lot more shows on Basketball this year. Plenty of reasons for it.

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  9. Maybe coffey and cowherd were both in the band?

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  10. U should be evaluating the band

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  11. Coffey has his brain a bit warped from the trolls at Rock's House. If you think we ran too little in the first half, you're delusional and need to rewatch the game. We ran almost 60% of the snaps before it was 20-0, and that's including sacks as pass plays.

    We weren't going to win this game by running up the gut every play. We weren't going to win this game passing more, either. We just weren't going to win this game.

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    1. Might want to check that math:

      1st drive (0-0): 3 rush, 6 pass
      2nd drive (0-0): 3 rush
      3rd drive (0-7): 1 rush, 2 pass (including pick)
      4th drive (0-14): 0 rush, 3 pass (Wimbush run was scramble on 3rd after pocket flush)
      5th drive (0-14): 6 rush, 1 pass (another Wimbush scramble)
      6th drive (0-14): 1 pass, from our own 7, picked off

      Total: 14 rush, 13 pass, which at best is a split

      Take out that fifth drive, it becomes 8-13.

      Defeatism is never pretty. ND could have at least been significantly more competitive in that game with quick-developing run plays that hit the holes quickly and negated Miami's speed on the edge. Instead, we ran slow-developing RPO plays either INTO that edge or in a way that allowed back-side pursuit by those speedy DE's. Lots of lesser teams ran successfully vs Miami up the gut this season. Apparently that's outside our skill set.

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    2. Turn those scrambles into runs and the math is right. If you want to say those are called pass plays, fair enough. But you can't "take away" the biggest drive just because, uh, reasons.

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    3. Well, the "biggest drive" not only ended up with a punt but then was not repeated, so.....

      And it's clear the play-calling returned again this week. Three passes out of the gate against an undermanned service academy defense, a pass from an inaccurate QB to a poor pass-catching TE on 3rd and 2 when the game needed to be iced? Case closed.

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    4. I meant most run-heavy drive. Anyways, you're paranoid, warped by the Rock's House echo chamber. We ran a *ton* against Navy, and you cherry-pick the (only) two data points most helpful to you from the game.

      If you want to say that we should run more, that's possibly right. But it's not because it's optimal strategy in football to run 65%+ of the time; it is decidedly not if you have a half-decent passing quarterback. It's not clear that we have a half-decent passing quarterback, however.

      In any case, the idea that Brian Kelly is up to his old ways seems odd when (a) we've come out passing almost every game this year, then switched to a run-heavy attack after and (b) that happened yet again in the Navy game. This fit the normal pattern of the year.

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  12. He a band geek, why do u listen to him?
    He really would be better evaluating music/bands

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  13. Kabong, were 9-2looking at another potential 10-2 season similar to 200151A.. This staff is fine, you have no idea what your talking about. Stick with band evaluations please.

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    1. 100% agree Mike coffey is in over his head talking about football. If anybody knows what instrument he played in the band I would sure like to know, I'm definitely more interested in that then hearing about his football analysis which isn't very good.

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  14. Coffey wanted jim mcelwain to be hired back in the day.

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  15. Mike Coffey is an embarrassment to all of the good people that follow Notre Dame football.

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  16. I love Coach Kelly and this staff, every program has some people that do nothing but complain.

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  17. Coffey got corncobbed on NDNation - https://www.ndnation.com/boards/showpost.php?b=football;pid=242197;d=this

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  18. nice to see he is finally being exposed for everything he has tried to undermine with the coaches over the years.

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    1. I have a feeling a lot of people feel the same way that we do about Mike Coffey on NDnation it is just that they are too afraid to say it, like a person in Cuba when Fidel Castro was in power.

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  19. He s a real piece of work

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